smith



(No Model.)

- G. H. SMITH.

- SNAP HOOK.

No. 566,643. Patented Aug. 25, 1896.

&

UNITED STATES PATENT CHARLES H. SMITH, OF NEIV HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO 0. 13. NORTH 8: 00., OF SAME PLACE.

SNAP-HOOK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters latent No. 566, 543, dated August 25, .1896.

Application filed April 13, 1896.

To aZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. SMITH, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Snap-Hooks; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure 1, a side view of a snap-hook embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a top view of the same; Fig. 3, a transverse section on line 4 4 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a longitudinal section.

This invention relates to an improvement in snap-hooks, and particularly to that class in which a U-shaped spring-tongue is employed, one leg of the U having a bearing in the body and the other end extending forward beneath the nose of the hook. In snaps of this character, and particularly in the large sizes, it sometimes happens that the tongue becomes bent laterally, so as to allow a ring to become disengaged with the nose of the hook.

The object of this invent-ion is to provide a body with lugs which project over the spring and hold it against lateral displacement; and the invention consists in the construction as hereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claim.

The hook consists of a body A, formed with a nose B at one end and preferably with a loop or eye 0 at the opposite end. The loop end of the body is recessed and formed with a seat a. The walls of the recess are formed at their upper edges with inwardly-turned lugs b, and preferably with a lug c, extending from one or both sides of the check into the recess at the rear end slightly below the plane of the loop 0. The spring D is of usual U-shaped form, one end having a bearing upon the seat a. and the other end projects flerial No. 587,263- (No model.)

beneath the lugs h, against which it takes a bearing forward under the end of the nose B, the tendency of the spring being upward against the nose, so as to normally close the hook. The body is cast in the usual manner, with the cheeks slightly separated and the nose distorted, and so that the spring may be readily inserted in position, and when so placed the cheeks are closed together and the nose turned into line with the body, so that the spring is held in position, the lugs b preventing any lateral play of the spring. In place of the lugs 0 described any of the wellknown forms of lugs or bars for preventing the rearward displacement of the spring may be employed. The lugs 19 are readily cast with the cheeks and add but slightly, if any, to the cost of manufacture or the labor in assembling the hooks.

I am aware that heretofore hooks have been formed with upward extension from the checks to prevent lateral displacement of the spring, and in some cases these projections have been connected across the top. I therefore do not wish to be understood as claiming, broadly, such as my invention; but

What I do claim is- A snap-hook, consisting of a body formed with a nose at one end and a recess at the 0p posite end, lugs extending inward from the upper edge of the walls of the recess, and a U -shaped spring having a bearing in the said recess and one leg extending forward beneath the said lugs against which it bears to the nose of the hook, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES H. SMITH.

Witnesses Fnnnnnro O. EARLE, LILLIAN D. KELSEY. 

